Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/582

REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 61 His head was cut off and sent to Dublin. The Papal standard, which had been unfolded in the battle, was almost captured also, and the figure upon it, as Malby scornfully said, ' was of a new scratched about the face, for they carried it through the woods and thorns in post haste.' 1 Desmond, who had been hovering in the neighbourhood with six hundred horse, retired to Ash- ketyn again. His brothers, Sir John and Sir James, fell back with the Spaniards to Dingle, where in re- venge for their kinsman they murdered some of the poor English prisoners. The blow to the rebellion was serious, and decided the waverers to waver longer. The Pope's general had been defeated and killed in his first action, and the loss of Fitzmaurice, who was a man of resolution and ability, was most unfortunate. Sanders however found an ex- planation of the disaster in his theory of Providence. i Sir N. Malby to - , October 12, 1579 : MSS. Ireland. This ban- ner was apparently never taken by the English } unless indeed it is re- ferred to in the following curious passage from a note of the services done by James Mcagh. ' Upon a time the said James made a journey to Desmond: he took from certain of tbe traitor John of Desmond's men a. painted cloth, 40 yards long, which cloth the traitors James Fitzmaurice and Dr Sanders brought from Rome, in the midst of which cloth was sumptuously drawn the said traitor James's arms, with the red dragon and many other ceremonies about it, as the picture of two angels uphold* ing thesaidarms, andoveritthe figure of the cross, with the portraiture of our Lord and the pictures of two women, images about it also ; and under the said arms, in great Ro- man letters, the poesy written 4 In omui tribulatione et angustia spes nostra Jesus et Maria. ' This cloth at every mass or sermon that Dr Sanders had in the field was set up and spread abroad upon stakes in the face of all the people.' MSS. Ireland, July, 1586. 2 Sir William Gerrard to Burgh- ley, September 16 : MSS. Ireland